Docks at the Staten Island Ferry Port - New York City

© Christine Mastroianni, all rights reserved

All of the inhabitants of Manhattan are not hurriedly weaving around the avenues and streets, intermittently disappearing behind retail mazes and occasionally becoming one with the subway poles. Some of them, like the four shown here, are quite stationary, standing strong regardless of the weather or the waves to which they are constantly exposed. They reliably endure the largest storm of all which happens to occur regularly throughout the day, five days a week: the daily commute! After all these years they probably recognise the regulars, gingerly toting their laptops and their lattes while navigating the sea of suits, providing a constant stream of entertainment and gossip material. They bear their scars proudly, evidence of years of occupational abuse as they are scraped by the orange ferries upon every return to port. A tenacious greeting of wood and steel and fading yellow paint at the end of the day.